Sealing means for deep-well

ABSTRACT

A sealing means to be employed to seal a wall section of a deepwell is disclosed. Said sealing means is formed by a seal carrier, solidary of the upper end of the pump; an outer sealing element carried by said carrier and covering this latter; O-ring means at said carrier; an elastic seal coupled to said outer sealing element; all of these constituting a lower end seal; and an upper end seal of resilient nature, and formed by the same elements as the lower one. Said sealing means are suitable to seal and isolate said wall section in order this to be used as the discharge conductor for said well.

United States Patent 1 Ortiz 1 1 SEALING MEANS FOR DEEP-WELL [76] Inventor: Carlos Mayer Ortiz, Blas Pascal 135-1002, Mexico City, Mexico 221 Filed: Feb. 4, 1974 21 App1.No.:439,040

[52] [1.8. CI 166/685; 166/106 [51] Int. Cl E2lb-43/00 {58] Field of Search 166/685, 68, 127, 191, 166/106; 285/302 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 591,382 10/1897 Chapman 166/106 2,205,421 6/1940 Layne......... 166/685 2,242,166 5/1941 Bennett 166/106 2,800,085 7/1957 Hansen 166/685 2,900,028 8/1959 Hanes 285/302 3,399,548 9/1968 Burns 285/302 1111 3,891,031 1 1 June 24, 1975 Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Anthony A. O'Brien [57] ABSTRACT A sealing means to be employed to seal a wall section of a deep-well is disclosed. Said sealing means is formed by a seal carrier, solidary of the upper end of the pump; an outer sealing element carried by said carrier and covering this latter; O-ring means at said carrier; an elastic seal coupled to said outer sealing e1- ement; all of these constituting a lower end seal; and an upper end seal of resilient nature, and formed by the same elements as the lower one. Said sealing means are suitable to seal and isolate said wall section in order this to be used as the discharge conductor for said well.

7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PA'IENTED JUN 2 4 I975 FIG.I

FIG.2

SEALING MEANS FOR DEEP-WELL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to deep-wells. More particularly it refers to a means for sealing a wall section of said well in order to avoid the need of a highly-costly discharge casing string.

2. The Prior Art Recently a system has been developed by means of which the discharge casing string of a deep-well pump can be dispensed with, by providing for the sealing of a portion of the wall, so as this can be used as the discharge conduct for the well. The seals capable of being used in said application, must be provided with certain requirements, eg they must effectively isolate the wall portion of the well to be employed as the discharge casing, whereby they must be capable of establishing a firm and tight contact with said wall, irrespective of the unevenness or nonuniformities of said wall. Likewise, when using together with the upper portion of the pump, they must be perfectly tight, so as constitute really a seal against any leakage of fluid and, furthermore, must be capable of supporting the weight of the water column formed on said seal, and withstand the stress thus imparted without breaking or otherwise destroying the shape and condition of said seal.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This invention is partially related to the invention of the US Pat. copending application Ser. No. 439,04I filed concurrently herewith in the name of the same inventor, and entitled A System of Suppressing the Dis charge Casing String in Deep-Well Vertical Pumps," the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The instant invention deals with sealing means to be employed with the system of the above referred to US. application, as the top seal and the lower seal of the well, so as to isolate a wall section. Therefore, the invention provides sealing means and a supporting means therefor in order to reinforce said sealing means to provide for the maintaining of a good seal, even when the maximum weight of fluid is gravitating on said seal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a deep-well pump, carrying the seal of this invention; and

FIG. 2 is a partially sectional view, magnified, showing the seal of this invention as employed in the pump depicted in FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In general, this invention provides, at the same time, a highly effective sealing means for the lower part of the string of a deepwell pump, and the sealing means for the top thereof, suitable to connect the fluid extracting conduct to the wall of the well, in a tight-way; a coupling system of said seal to said pump, and a coupling system of said seal to the wellhead, so as said seals can maintain the sealing capacity thereof irrespective of the stresses imposed thereon by the weight of the fluid column.

Thus, in FIG. I a pump is shown consisting of a motor 12, supported on the wellhead 14, wherein there is also a discharge mouth 16, in fluid-communication with the inside of the well. From said motor I2, a tub- 5 ing string projects consisting of a supporting sheath 20, inside which there is a shaft 22 transmitting the power from motor I2 to a pump 24, by means of which the fluid of the well will be suctioned at the suction end 26. On the other side, the wellhead I4 is arranged to cover the wellhole, formed by a circular wall I8, impermeable in a grade enough to be employed in lieu of the current discharge casing string.

According to the teachings of the above identified application, a top sealing means (not shown) is pro- 5 vided, so as to reduce the opening of the wellhole, at the top end thereof, to just an opening corresponding to the size of the passing conduct located at the wellhead (not shown) and in direct communication with the discharge mouth 16, in order said pumped fluid from the well goes through that only exit through said conduct and mouth. Likewise, a lower end is provided, identified generally by numeral 50, and arranged to limit by the lower end, the wall of the well in a point corresponding to the uppermost edge of said pump 24, all in a manner most clearly shown in FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 2, a pump 24 is supported from a string formed by said sheath carrying internally a shaft 22 supported thereinto by bearing 23. The upper end of said pump 24 is provided with a seal-carrier 30, solidary and firmly connected to said pump 24, and arranged to carry a plurality of seals of the O ring type 32, 34, 36 and 38, carried in suitable slots in the exterior of said seal carrier 30. The upper end 31 of said carrier is rounded in order to make easy the introduction of said carrier within the outer seal or outer sealing device 40.

Said outer seal 40, shown in the preferred embodiment as a cylindrical seal, can be contacted with the exterior of said carrier 30, by means of said plurality of O-rings 32-38 and is provided with the lower end thereof 42 internally rounded, in order to make easy also the coupling with said portion. At a certain distance from the upper end, said cylindrical seal 40 has an outer peripheral land 44, extending diametrically outwardly.

Said land 44 is provided with suitable holes so as to allow the pass therethrough of a threaded lower end of a corresponding plurality of supports, e.g., cables, rods or beams, identified by numeral 28, affixed in place by means of nuts and counternuts 46, 48, and thereby the cylindrical seal 40 is supported on said supporting means. Said supports 28, as shown in FIG. I, run until the wellhead 14, wherein they are fastened by suitable means, in order that said seal 40 remains pending from said wellhead.

Said land 44 also serves as a coupling means between a peripheral resilient seal 58, disposed to be coupled sealingly to said land 44, and fastened by means of a counternut 48 to the respective support, in order to further straighten the coupling thereof. The material from which said seal 58 is made, the shape ofwhich has been shown as a preferred embodiment is outwardly flared, with a sinus shape, must be resilient enough to bear firmly against the wall 18 but, at the same time, must have enough strength to support the weight of the fluid column formed during the pumping of the fluid from the bottom of the well, above the cylindrical seal 40, to

the discharge mouth 16 (FIG. 1). As will be easily understood, the degree of said bearing of the seal 58 against the wall 18 will increase as a response to the weight of the fluid supported as a column above said seal; and this fact will increase the sealing action.

Therefore, on the one side, said O-ring seals 32-38 make a tight joint between said cylindrical seal 40 and said carrier 30; and on the other side, said elastic seal 58 makes a tight joint between said platform 44 and said wall 18. Furthermore, said supports 28 prevent said seal assembly from coming out of place when supported by said cylindrical seal and, therefore, with the resilient seal connected to said land, by said supports from the wellhead, as above discussed,

Although the invention has been described with reference to a pump of the so-called water-or oillubricated deep-well pumps, it can be understood that this invention also can be applied to other types of pumps, such as those of the underwater electric motor type, whrein, due to its different construction, makes necessary slight modifications in order to apply this invention to said systems; but the modifications and changes are well within the spirit and scope of the invention.

It will be obvious that changes and modifications can be made relating the above discussed; therefore, any of the herein pointed out must be considered not as limitative but as illustrative only, since the only limits are those imposed by the true spirit of the annexed claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a sealing means for a wall of a deep-well, a well head, a pump device having an upper end, the sealing means being suitable to connect the wall in a tight manher to the upper end of the pump device, a supporting string supporting the pump device;

a seal carrier means solidarily coupled to the upper end of said pump device and in fluid-flow relationship with the interior thereof;

an outer sealing device arranged to cover said carrier means; a plurality of O-ring seals carried by said carrier means;

said O-rings being disposed to make a tight joint between said carrier means and said outer sealing device;

an elastic sealing device coupled to said outer sealing device, being disposed to extend from the latter toward the wall of the well, and uniting in a tight manner said outer sealing device and said wall; and elastic sealing means located at the uppermost point of the well; whereby a section of the wall interposed between said elastic sealing means and the wellhead is isolated from the bottom of the well and disposed to be employed as a discharge casing.

2. Sealing means according to claim 1, wherein said outer sealing device is a cylindrical rigid seal.

3. Sealing means according to claim 1, wherein said outer sealing device is formed with an outer peripheral land, extending normal to said sealing device; and with said elastic sealing device being connected thereto,

4. Sealing means according to claim 1, wherein said elastic sealing device comprises a plurality of flared resilient seals 5. Sealing means according to claim 1, wherein support means are provided supporting said outer sealing device independently from said pump device and said seal carrier means.

6. Sealing means according to claim 5, wherein said outer sealing device is a cylindrical seal; said support means are constituted by a plurality of rods connected to said cylindrical seal.

7. Sealing means according to claim 6, wherein said cylindrical seal includes a land; the coupling of said support means is effected through holes provided at the land of said cylindrical seal, and by the use of suitable fastening elements.

* i i k 

1. In a sealing means for a wall of a deep-well, a well head, a pump device having an upper end, the sealing means being suitable to connect the wall in a tight manner to the upper end of the pump device, a supporting string supporting the pump device; a seal carrier means solidarily coupled to the upper end of said pump device and in fluid-flow relationship with the interior thereof; an outer sealing device arranged to cover said carrier means; a plurality of O-ring seals carried by said carrier means; said O-rings being disposed to make a tight joint between said carrier means and said outer sealing device; an elastic sealing device coupled to said outer sealing device, being disposed to extend from the latter toward the wall of the well, and uniting in a tight manner said outer sealing device and said wall; and elastic sealing means located at the uppermost point of the well; whereby a section of the wall interposed between said elastic sealing means and the wellhead is isolated from the bottom of the well and disposed to be employed as a discharge casing.
 2. Sealing means according to claim 1, wherein said outer sealing device is a cylindrical rigid seal.
 3. Sealing means according to claim 1, wherein said outer sealing device is formed with an outer peripheral land, extending normal to said sealing device; and with said elastic sealing device being connected thereto.
 4. Sealing means according to claim 1, wherein said elastic sealing device comprises a plurality of flared resilient seals.
 5. Sealing means according to claim 1, wherein support means are provided supporting said outer sealing device independently from said pump device and said seal carrier means.
 6. Sealing means according to claim 5, wherein said outer sealing device is a cylindrical seal; said support means are constituted by a plurality of rods connected to said cylindrical seal.
 7. Sealing means according to claim 6, wherein said cylindrical seal includes a land; the coupling of said support means is effected through holes provided at the land of said cylindrical seal, and by the use of suitable fastening elements. 